Two Convicted of Romance and Pandemic Fraud Schemes (Press Release, June 15, 2023)

Summary

A press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, dated Thursday, June 15, 2023, announcing that Osakpamwan Henry Omoruyi, 37, and Osaretin Godspower Omoruyi, 36, were each convicted by a federal jury in Boston following an eight-day trial of one count of bank fraud, one count of bank fraud conspiracy and one count of money laundering conspiracy. According to the release, the defendants opened bank accounts in the names of fake people using fraudulent foreign passports and used them to receive proceeds of pandemic unemployment assistance fraud, romance scams and other online scams. The release states that between 2019 and 2021 the defendants received more than $1.7 million and transferred most of it overseas. Judge Patti B. Saris ordered the defendants taken into federal custody pending sentencing.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

PRESS RELEASE



Two Convicted of Romance and
Pandemic Fraud Schemes
Thursday, June 15, 2023

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts

BOSTON – Two Nigerian men were found guilty yesterday by a federal jury in Boston for
their roles in expansive online fraud schemes targeting individuals in the United States,
including pandemic unemployment assistance fraud, romance scams and other online
scams.

Osakpamwan Henry Omoruyi, 37, and Osaretin Godspower Omoruyi, 36, both previously
of Canton, were each convicted following an eight-day jury trial of one count of bank
fraud, one count of bank fraud conspiracy, and one count of money laundering
conspiracy. U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris ordered that the defendants be taken
into federal custody pending sentencing, which is scheduled for Sept. 22, 2023. The
defendants were charged by criminal complaint in March 2021.

The defendants opened multiple bank accounts in the names of fake people using
fraudulent foreign passports. The defendants then used those accounts to receive the
proceeds from various frauds perpetrated by their co-conspirators, including pandemic
unemployment assistance fraud, romance scams, and other online scams. The majority
of the fraud proceeds came from romance scams, which occur when a criminal adopts a
fake online identity to gain a victim’s affection and trust. The scammer then uses the
illusion of a romantic or close relationship to manipulate and steal from the victim. In
total, between 2019 and 2021, the defendants received more than $1.7 million in fraud
proceeds and transferred most of the money overseas.

The charges of bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank provide for a sentence of up
to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release, a fine of up to $1 million or twice
the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater, and forfeiture. The charge of money
laundering conspiracy provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of
supervised release, a fine of $500,000, or twice the value of the criminally derived
property, whichever is greater, and forfeiture. Sentences are imposed by a federal
district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which
govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; Christopher DiMenna, Acting Special
Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; Jonathan
Mellone, Special Agent in Charge of Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General;
Michael J. Krol, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in
New England; and Supervisory Special Agent Gregory Batman, Chief of the U.S.
Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Criminal Investigations Division made
the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher J. Markham and Benjamin A.
Saltzman of Levy’s Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit are prosecuting the case.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement
Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with
agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-
related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most
culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with
administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting
and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and
techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing
information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information
on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please
visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus. 

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can
report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud
(NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form
at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

Updated June 15, 2023


File and source

File

2023-06-21-Two-Convicted-of-Romance-and-Pandemic-Fraud-Schemes-USAO-D-MA-06-15-2023.pdf

Size

142,642 bytes

SHA-256

f02088ab000e495d6bdfc4ef943ab6c52b23547bfa9ed1691891fe3a6575f5dc

Our copy

2023-06-21-Two-Convicted-of-Romance-and-Pandemic-Fraud-Schemes-USAO-D-MA-06-15-2023.pdf

Original

No public link identified.